Over heating Servos?

[Ben]

Hi guys,

Firstly – love the Crumble kits! Really great product but… I’ve hit a couple of issues with using the Crumb servos.

Firstly I seem to have fried one already somehow, but secondly when I run one with a Crumb Proximity sensor I found today that the chip above the spindle get REALLY hot. I’m working with 7-11 years olds this week and one touched the chip and yelped. I thought it’s likely it is being overworked?!

I havn’t been able to find a manual for the Crumble software and wondered if something in my code was simply triggering the servo too much and overheating it. Do you have any advice on avoiding this happening? What’s the best approach to coding servos and avoiding overheating?

I’m doing a workshop all this week and putting Crumbles into cardboard robot bodies so I’m a little scared that overheating could send one up in flames if a child leaves something connected for a long duration. A quick response would be appreciate 🙂

I’ll add my code for your inspection!

Cheers,
Ben

Attachments:

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   proximity_and_servo.png
   

[Ben]

Sorry I attached the wrong code to the last message! Here’s the code…

Attachments:

1. 

   proximity_and_servo1.png
   

[Joseph]

Hi Ben,

I haven’t got a circuit diagram for the Servo Crumb, but it seems strange that the IC should get hot. I’m assuming the overheating IC is the one marked MEGA328P? The Servo Crumb looks to have a reverse polarity diode, so it’s probably not an incorrect connection. Was the Servo actually working when it got hot? In theory AtMEGA328 shouldn’t get warm, regardless of how much work the servo is doing. It might be worth contacting 4tronix directly – in case it is just a faulty Crumb. I’ll drop them an email too.

All the best,

Joseph

[Ben]

Hi Joseph,

yes it was the AtMEGA328 that was hot and it was connected via a Crumble to 3x AA batteries.

I have been in contact with 4tronix, and they are having a look into it too. They also said it should not get hot, so not sure why that would happen…

cheers for the quick response!

Ben

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